


Zero

by Sapphsquid



Category: Splatoon
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Self-Hatred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:54:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27397546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphsquid/pseuds/Sapphsquid
Summary: She hardly even remembered the match; it had all seemed to speed by in a blind haze of adrenaline, but she certainly remembered the loss. The cheers and boos exploding from the crowd, the insults being slung at them by the X-Blood supporters, the disappointed faces of Team Blue-per’s supporters, the dangerous red flash in Vintage’s eyes as he looked down at them like they were scum… it had all been dizzying, but not nearly as much as it had to look up at the scoreboard and see how she’d performed.Zero. Splats.
Relationships: Headphones/Skull (Splatoon)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21
Collections: CoroikaCollection





	Zero

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This took fucking forever because writer's block kept kicking my ass, but it's done now so I can finally starting working on new stuff.  
> NOTE: Rated T for cussing and angst (and cake death lmao)

Headphones collapsed into her bed with a sigh, her muscles aching after a long day of training. She allowed her eyes to drift shut, welcoming the feeling of the soft mattress beneath her before opening them again. Unfortunately, her Splat Charger just had to be the first thing her gaze fell upon. Cod, she couldn’t even look at the thing without her stomach twisting itself into knots. Her sniping skills had recently fallen into a downward spiral, and nothing she did seemed to help. She practiced almost all day, and had barely managed to land a single hit on any of the training dummies, not even the stationary ones!

The blue Inkling sighed heavily. It had been this way for a while now. Ever since Team Blue’s, or rather, Team Blue-per’s brutal loss to the X-Blood Team in the Square King Ranked Cup, she’d barely been able to think, let alone aim straight. 

She hardly even remembered the match; it had all seemed to speed by in a blind haze of adrenaline, but she certainly remembered the loss. The cheers and boos exploding from the crowd, the insults being slung at them by the X-Blood supporters, the disappointed faces of Team Blue-per’s supporters, the dangerous red flash in Vintage’s eyes as he looked down at them like they were scum… it had all been dizzying, but not nearly as much as it had to look up at the scoreboard and see how she’d performed.

Zero. Splats.

She doubted she had ever been so humiliated in her entire life. In that moment, she’d seriously thought she was going to vomit, which she guessed was the only thing that could have possibly embarrassed her more. The match had been over a week ago, and it still made her sick to her stomach just thinking about it. She dug her nails into the mattress, both out of anger and in an attempt to distract from the nausea stirring in her gut. She could barely live with herself; knowing that she’d made a fool of not only herself, but of her teammates as well. They’d all worked so hard to get to the finals, only for her to flush their efforts down the drain along with any previous respect they may have had for her.

There was no way they didn’t despise her now, even if they didn’t act the part. They claimed that they didn’t care about the loss, and that it had all been worthwhile because they’d had fun, but their faces told a different story. Their smiles always seemed forced, and their eyes carried a quiet disappointment that wore away at her self-esteem every time she saw it. She simply couldn’t stand to be around them when she knew how badly she’d failed them.

Even more than her teammates, she’d let down all of the teams they’d previously beaten, most notably the S4 and Rider, who had taken Army’s place on the team when the orange Inkling had been too injured to participate. It hadn’t mattered any; the S4 Team was much stronger than them regardless of who their fourth player was. It was honestly nothing short of a miracle that Team Blue-per had somehow managed to defeat them. She scoffed to herself at the sheer absurdity of it.

_Cod, just imagine losing to a team much weaker than you that goes on to lose by knockout victory AND have one of their members get zero splats in the very next match._

But even among them, there was one person she’d failed more than any other.

_Then imagine that match was with your old rival who you’ve been looking to defeat for years, but then didn’t get to because some group of jackasses came along and not only stole your deserved victory from you, but then wasted it by getting absolutely crushed by that rival and making you look pathetic._

After their miraculous victory against the S4 Team, she’d made a silent promise to herself that she would defeat Vintage in Skull’s place and preserve his honor, but had instead ended up doing the exact opposite and crushing any hopes he may have had. She couldn’t help chuckling to herself derisively. It was ironic; funny, almost, that she’d let him down so horribly right when the two of them had just been starting to become friends. 

That was all over now. He’d probably rather hang out with a rabid salmonid than her at this point.

Her smile fell. She normally couldn’t care less what anyone outside of her team, let alone some _guy_ thought of her, but the thought of never seeing him again stung like having salt rubbed in a wound. Despite that he’d initially frightened her, she’d always looked up to the purple Inkling for his sheer strength and skill, along with his ability to dominate any battlefield he entered with his mighty E-Liter. There were a multitude of things that she admired him for, but more than anything, she envied that he was actually capable of supporting his team. Unlike her.

She curled in on herself. Her hopes of impressing him had been little more than a childish dream. She wasn’t capable of impressing anybody, especially not when she was surrounded by the rest of Team Blue, or of Team Blue-per. She wasn’t funny like Goggles or lively like Bobble or smart like Glasses, or skilled like Emperor, she was just… average. She was nothing more than “that one girl from the Idiot Team.” The finals had been her one chance to finally shake it all off and make something of herself. She could have made her teammates _proud_ of her when they were so often underwhelmed. Instead, all she’d done was crush their hopes and prove that she wasn’t worth a single shred of pride or respect from anyone. Especially not _him_.

Her hands throbbed painfully, reminding her of her current vicious daily cycle of training until her fingers couldn’t move before stumbling home and collapsing into bed for a fitful sleep. She groaned to herself at the thought of repeating it yet again tomorrow. Though she was annoyed, the darker part of her mind couldn’t help wondering if this kind of miserable existence was what she deserved after she’d so badly hurt everyone she cared about.

She aggressively pulled her navy blue comforter over top of herself, praying that sleep would grant her an escape from her racing mind.

* * *

Headphones was startled awake by a deafening series of crashes, immediately followed by an explosion of laughter from her rowdy teammates. She let out a groan of annoyance, wondering what those two could possibly be doing as she rolled to the edge of her bed and stood up. Still barely awake, she stumbled out of the room and made her way downstairs to investigate.

“ _What the hell are you doing?_ ,” she hissed upon entering the kitchen to see Goggles laying on the floor, with what seemed to be every pot and pan in the house sprawled out around him.

“Gogg… Goggles… opened the cabinet… and they all fell on him…,” Bobble tried to explain through her laughter.

“My… my life… flashed before my eyes!,” Goggles laughed equally hard as he propped himself up on his elbows.

“ _This_ is why I always get on your case about putting them away right,” she scolded, bending down to grab the pot that had been propped on Goggles’ head like a helmet, “This is what happens when you don’t.”

Her teammates moved to help her, but she stopped them.

“No, I’ll take care of it. You two… just go watch TV or something,” she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and pointing toward the living room. Damn Glasses for being hospitalized with bee stings and leaving her to deal with these two alone.

She made quick work of putting the cookware back in the cabinet before starting the coffee machine and rushing upstairs to get dressed. Returning a few minutes later, she grabbed her now full mug from beneath the machine’s dispenser and headed into the living room, where she found her teammates watching cartoons. She shook her head. They would never grow up, would they?

“Oh, hey, Headphones!,” Goggles said upon her arrival, “Me and Bobble were gonna go play Turf War, if you wanna come with!”

Headphones narrowed her eyes slightly. There it was. That fake smile again. He had to be inviting her out of pity; there was no way he and Bobble could actually want her there after how much she’d humiliated them. Her stomach churned at the mere thought.

“Oh, no thanks. I’m pretty sore from training yesterday,” she replied. It was a lie; she felt fine for the most part, but she would honestly rather die than embarrass herself and them all over again, like she knew she would.

“Aw, really?,” Bobble asked, her eyebrows forming an odd contrast with her usual wide smile as they furrowed, “But you haven’t been to the Square since the tournament! People are starting to ask questions!”

 _Probably because they want to roast me for my zero splats the second I show up_ , she thought bitterly.

“Yeah!,” Goggles piped up, “Skull was asking where you were yesterday!”

“Oh-- sorry, but my legs hurt too much. I’m not sure I’ll even be able to make it there,” she had to force herself to speak through the cold horror that gripped her chest and made it hard to breathe.

“Oh, well, that’s alright!,” he replied, “We’ll make sure everyone knows you’re not dead or anything!”

“I need to run upstairs and get my Slosher real quick,” Bobble continued their previous idle conversation, “And we should probably try and check on Glasses at some point today.”

As the duo turned their attention away from her, Headphones whipped around and stormed into the kitchen, scowling. Why the _hell_ had Skull been asking about her? He hated her now, didn’t he? She couldn’t think of any reason he would want to see her unless it was to tell her as much. The thought made her bite her lip anxiously. She liked to consider herself a strong person, but she doubted she would be able to bear hearing that from the one she admired so much. Facing him simply wasn’t an option.

The blue Inkling made her way back upstairs, already feeling the beginnings of a headache.

* * *

“Skull… Skull… SKULL! Are you even listening to me?”

“Hmm?,” Skull recoiled as Aviators snapped his fingers in his face, "Yeah, I was listening.”

“Then what did I just say?”

“...”

“I really need you to listen to me,” his teammate sighed, accompanied by snickers from Stitch and Paisley, "I was saying that if we want to do well in the next tournament, we all need to be training.”

Skull nodded in agreement, but his attention became short-lived as his mind instantly began to wander again. Rather than to the upcoming tournament, his thoughts drifted toward the recent Square King Ranked Cup; specifically toward a certain old rival of his who had participated. Had the purple Inkling had eyebrows, they would have furrowed as he recalled the tournament’s brutal final round. Watching the X-Blood crush Team Blue-per so ruthlessly… it had almost made him _glad_ that his team had lost in the semi-finals. He’d known Vintage could be cruel, but _this_ had finally woken him up to the fact that he was simply unfixable. If a team as fun-loving and benevolent Team Blue couldn’t show the X-ranker the meaning of fun, then he doubted anyone could. Cod, why was Vintage such a pri--

Skull was startled out of his crude thoughts by a massive crash, followed by laughter and sarcastic clapping from two rude jellyfish sitting at a nearby table. Glancing around Aviators to see what was going on, he sighed to himself upon seeing that the noise had been the waiter dropping a bunch of plates, one of which had contained the chocolate cake he’d ordered. His stomach cried out in agony at the sight, letting out a loud growl.

“So your cake falling on the floor is what it takes to grab your attention?,” Aviators quipped, raising an eyebrow.

Skull rolled his swirl-patterned eyes as he sunk back into the booth behind him, his hearts still racing from the sudden commotion. Though he was still mourning the loss of his cake, he guessed the distraction had been a blessing in disguise. He really needed to stop stewing over Vintage and move on with his life like he’d decided he was going to. Besides, there was another Inkling he’d been concerned about lately, who, unlike the cyan-and-red Inkling, was actually worth his concern.

Speaking of Headphones, he hadn’t seen her a single time since the tournament two weeks ago. In fact, neither had anyone in Inkopolis Square, aside from Goggles and Bobble. The two of them insisted that she was fine, and was just busy, but he found that harder to believe with each passing day that bore no sign of her. He figured it was entirely possible that they were telling the truth, and that he was just overthinking things, but he couldn’t help feeling that something else was at play. As a matter of fact, when he considered the circumstances of when he’d last seen her, it almost seemed impossible that there wasn’t.

His chest tightened as he thought back to Team Blue-per’s defeat. He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d had such a strong reaction, but it had really hurt him to see the look of horror on Headphones’ face upon seeing that her team had lost. What had hurt even more, however, was the way her expression had gone from horrified to completely blank upon seeing that she’d scored zero splats. Even from where he’d been in the audience, he’d literally been able to _see_ her dying inside. He’d almost frantically made his way down to Team Blue-per, wanting nothing more than to reassure the blue Inkling, but by the time he’d gotten anywhere near them, she’d been long gone.

He closed his eyes thoughtfully. Her embarrassment was understandable, but silly at the same time. Not that he expected her to understand that, though. Knowing her and the impossibly high standards she tended to hold herself to, it wasn’t exactly surprising that she was only considering the negative aspects of her performance. His chest tightened even more. He didn’t understand why she was so incapable of being proud of herself. He also didn’t understand why he was so worried about her.

“Skull! Are you _seriously_ sleeping right now?”

* * *

Breathe in. Breathe out. Aim. Shoot. Miss.

Headphones almost screamed in frustration as the line of ink fired from her Charger missed its target entirely. She growled to herself, glaring at the training dummy as it continued to move along its track in an almost mocking manner. The blue Inkling again took aim, narrowing her eyes in concentration as she rested her brow against her recently purchased scope.

Another miss.

She gritted her teeth harshly, resisting the urge to throw her weapon on the ground and smash it to pieces like an ill-mannered toddler. Clinging to what little sanity she had left, she turned and stormed across the shooting range, dragging her Charger along with her and leaning it against the wall before sliding into a sitting position next to it. The second she touched the ground, she hid her face in her knees and dug her nails into her tentacles, wanting to rip them off in sheer anger.

It had been two weeks, and she was still making absolutely no progress.

She tightened her throat against another scream of rage. It didn’t make any sense! How could something that had once come to her so naturally become so impossible? She’d never seen this happen to anyone else! This never happened to her teammates! This never happened to Rider and the S4! This never happened to the other snipers! She’d seen all of them lose and be right back at it the next day, as strong as ever! None of them ever lost all their skills and hid for two weeks like a coward! None of them ever humiliated their teams! None of them ever got ZERO splats! It seemed so easy for them, so why the hell was it so hard for her!?

_Because you’re weak._

There it was. She was finally admitting it. She was weak. Weak, weak, weak. She clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white. The thought had been pestering her for some time now, but she’d always refused to entertain it, shoving it to the back of her mind every time it attempted to shove its way to the forefront. After months of fighting, her dark thoughts were finally starting to win as the rational part of her mind grew tired.

Like a candle burning itself out, her anger melted into cold despair. For as long as she could remember, she had always prided herself on being the strong girl who protected her teammates from bullies and supported them on the battlefield with her Charger skills. She’d always thought that they needed her as much as she needed them, but she could see now that it had all been a delusion. Her teammates didn’t need her. They were always the ones leading the team to victory, never her. She was nothing but a pathetic leech clinging to them for survival and piggybacking on their successes. How stupid she’d been. What an _idiot_ she’d been, thinking she was important.

_It’s just a whole team of idiots._

She stiffened as Rider’s voice echoed in her head. The lime green Inkling had slung that insult at them years ago, and had since made it clear he no longer felt that way, but it had always stuck with her, nagging like an itch she couldn’t reach. It hurt even more now than it had then, because she could finally see that he was right.

She curled in on herself. Recalling Rider’s insult had flipped a lever in her mind, releasing all of the taunts that had been thrown at her over the course of her Turf War career, which were now flying at her in an endless barrage. As the thoughts overwhelmed her, her eyes began to sting with pathetic tears, only fueling her hatred of herself even more. She couldn’t stand it. Her eyes were burning, her head was spinning, her chest was hurting, and she just wanted it all to stop.

_Just as I thought, you’re nothing special._

_I thought these guys were sooo cool, beating Rider and Army, and all, but now? I’m starting to reconsider~_

_I don’t even need to swing my roller to win against scrubs like yoooou…_

_No matter how hard you struggle, you will never reach a king’s eminence._

_Everyone below X-rank is trash._

She was worthless. She was dead weight. All of the major battles of her career had been won because of her teammates, never because of her. They had all shaken off those previous insults and proven themselves worthy, but she hadn’t. In fact, all she’d done was prove them right. Rider had been right when he’d called her an idiot. Army had been right when he’d said she wasn’t special. Aloha had been right when he’d said she was uncool. Mask had been right when he’d called her a scrub. Emperor had been right when he’d said she would never succeed. Vintage had been right when he’d called her trash. 

All of their words hurt, but none of them even came close to hurting as much as what _he_ had once said.

_I have no use for weaklings._

The tears she’d been holding back for weeks, or rather, years, finally poured over her cheeks.

_I know._

* * *

Skull couldn’t help but feel relieved as he arrived in Inkopolis Plaza, thankful that he’d actually managed to find his way there without stranding himself somewhere and having to call Aviators for help. As he strolled towards the original Ammo Knights, he glanced around the Plaza, finding it odd how his once familiar surroundings now seemed foreign to him. He hadn’t been here in quite some time; a year at least. In fact, the only reason he was here today was that the Ammo Knights in the Square was too crowded, like it always was on the weekend.

As the purple Inkling pushed the door open, the swordfish clerk looked up before returning to their work upon realizing that he was only there to use one of their shooting ranges. He pushed the door that led to the training grounds open, startling a flock of birds, which in turn startled him with a cacophony of fluttering wings and distressed chirping. He shook his head, irritated that he’d allowed himself to be scared by a bunch of pigeons, before beginning to make his way to the nearest unoccupied shooting range. He walked a short distance before stopping in his tracks, his eyes narrowing as he picked up an unusual sound from somewhere up ahead. It was too quiet, so he couldn’t be sure, but it almost sounded like… crying?

He wasn’t hugely concerned, it wasn’t exactly rare to find people shedding tears of frustration at the training grounds, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least take a peek. Slowly, he approached the shooting range where he suspected the sounds were coming from and poked his head around the corner. His eyes widened in surprise. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it certainly hadn’t been this.

“Headphones?”

The very Inkling who had eluded him for the past two week lifted her head from where it had been behind her knees, her reddened eyes widening in horror at the sight of him.

“Skull? Nononononono,” he just barely managed to hear her whisper.

The scene tugged at his heartstrings. Not only had he never seen the usually calm Inkling like this, but he also hadn’t missed the way she’d wrapped her arms around herself tighter at the sight of him, as if she felt threatened. Cod, he would have wanted that a few years ago, but now, the thought of her being afraid of him made him feel sick to his stomach. 

The purple Inkling took a reluctant few steps forward, not entirely sure of what to do. Headphones didn’t really seem to want him here, but he doubted he would be able to bring himself to just leave her like this.

“What’s wrong?,” he asked, speaking as gently as his gruff voice would allow.

Trembling slightly, Headphones remained silent as she slowly stood up, turning her back to him as she stuffed her Charger back into its carrying case. She pulled the case over her shoulder by its strap, refusing to look at him.

“It doesn’t matter,” she replied coolly, her sudden composure feeling very forced as she began to make her way toward the exit.

“...It does to me.”

The blue Inkling stopped in her tracks and barked out a derisive laugh. She looked over her shoulder, fixing him with a red-eyed teary glare that made his hearts hurt even more.

“You’re wasting your time. Don’t pretend you don’t hate me.”

“ _What?_ Why would I--”

“WHY WOULDN’T YOU!? I COULDN’T BEAT VINTAGE AND I MADE YOU LOOK BAD AND I LET MY TEAM DOWN AND I COULDN’T DEAL WITH THE LOSS I CAUSE WITH MY ZERO CODDAMN SPLATS AND NOW I CAN’T EVEN DO THE ONE THING I’M SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD AT! I’M _FUCKING_ WORTHLESS!,” She whipped around and howled, tears springing from her eyes once more.

Skull simply stared in shock as she covered her face with her hands and began to sob again, sounding even more pained this time. Slowly, his purple gaze softened as he finally made sense of what little he’d managed to catch of her rambling outburst. He quickly closed the distance between the two of them, placing what he hoped was a reassuring hand on the shaking Inkling’s shoulder. Headphones startled at the contact, but made no attempt to push him away as he guided her into a sitting position on the ground. She instantly curled up and buried her face in her knees, refusing to look anywhere near him as he joined her.

He was stunned, to say the least. He honestly couldn’t believe that she’d somehow gotten it into her head that she was worthless, and found it even harder to believe that she actually thought he _agreed_. He bit back a sigh. Sure, it was true that he hadn’t exactly been friendly when the two of them had first met, but she knew he’d changed, right? He could never think such things about her nowadays, especially not over something as insignificant as a ranked match. He so badly wished he could make sure she understood that, but knew that when she was like this, anything he said wouldn’t be heard, let alone processed. His own silence killing him, he tore his gaze off of her, finding it impossible to bear just sitting there and watching her cry.

He wasn’t sure of how much time it had actually been, but eternity seemed to have passed by the time his companion’s muffled sobs finally died down. Desperate to do _something_ to console her, the purple Inkling finally broke the sniffle-punctuated silence.

“Did you honestly think I hated you?”

“...Y-you don’t?”

“Of course not. I don’t understand why you would think that. And I definitely don’t understand why you would say those things about yourself,” he replied.

“B-because…,” Headphones stopped to take a deep breath before continuing, this time more steadily, “Because you were there when I showed the entire crowd how bad I am at what I do. You saw me get zero splats, even after I somehow managed to win against you. And if me stealing the win you deserved and then immediately getting crushed by your rival who you deserved to fight isn’t an insult, then I don’t know what is.”

If he hadn’t been shocked before, he certainly was now. She… definitely seemed to care a lot about what he thought of her. He was touched, but at the same time couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty that he’d apparently played a part in her recent misery. He looked away, trying to ignore the heat growing in his cheeks as she continued.

“I’ve been training away from the Square since then so I won’t embarrass myself and my team again, but I haven’t been able to hit anything lately. Not even with a scope,” she growled, “Being a sniper is the one thing I’m good at. And if I can’t do that, then I may as well just not go back to the Square.”

“You-- you really have no idea how wrong you are,” Skull struggled to hide the sheer horror that gripped him at the prospect of never seeing the blue Inkling again.

She narrowed her eyes at him disbelievingly.

“No, really,” he said more gently, “You are the farthest thing from worthless. You’re amazing at what you do. Losing doesn’t change that, and not getting any splats doesn’t mean you contributed any less than your teammates. If anything, you should be proud of how you did.”

“You’re _joking_.”

“I’m not. And you thinking I am really shows that you haven’t been to the Square lately.”

She simply stared.

“You’ve been an idol ever since the match. Do you really not remember that you nearly splatted Vintage?”

“...Even if I did, _nearly_ isn’t good enough,” she said after a few moments of silence, though her eyes, wide with surprise, revealed that he was starting to get through to her.

“When it’s with him, it is. And to tell the truth, you definitely got closer than I ever have,” he admitted.

“Y-you can’t be serious.”

“Dead serious. And even if you hadn’t, it wouldn’t matter to me. I’ve literally witnessed teams hide in their spawn zones for entire matches because they were too afraid to go up against the X-Blood. So even if you don’t, I think you did a great job just by being brave enough to even try,” the purple Inkling could feel himself blushing, but he wasn’t alone.

“...Thanks,” Headphones rubbed at the light blue blush that dusted her cheeks.

The two of them fell into an awkward, yet comfortable silence, punctuated only by the sounds of birds singing and wind blowing in the trees. Reluctant to ruin the moment but unable to stop thinking about the one question still burning on his mind, Skull spoke.

“So… hopefully there won’t be any talk of leaving the Square now?”

“Not on your life.”


End file.
